Friday, 28 March 2014

Hi again everyone, Linda Cain here for my last spot with The Artistic Stamper.

I LOVE tags, and I would be remiss if I didn't share one with you. So I'll take you through a tag of many layers that is simple in design and easily duplicated with any of your favourite stamps.

I start with a #8 tag Manila Tag. To get deep rich colours, you have to use several Distress Inks over the top of each other to create a completely solid coating of colour.

Here I used Broken China, then Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers to get a deep, rich blue at the top. Then Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves are added to the bottom. To add a bit of brightness to the centre area, I used Picked Raspberry.

Last a bit of the purples on the top edges to blend in the colours.

﻿

Since you have a nice deep layer of inks, when you add water droplets, let them sit, and then blot off, you get a great effect without loosing all your colour.

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

Hello everyone and lovely to have you drop by here! I have been having loads of fun altering playing cards recently and that got me in the mood for playing with a smaller format, so today I would like to share 3 mixed media ATCs with you....

I used just two stamp sets for this project, Katie Fox Numerical and Journaling Words 3
This is how I went about it:
I cut 3 bits of card to ATC size (2.5 x 3.5") and covered them with Tissue Wrap, wrinkling it up a bit to get some texture.

This was followed by some messy background stamping with various stamps from the Numerical plate, mostly with Jet Black Archival, but on one of them also with Red Geranium.
I'll show you some close ups and talk you through some of the details:

I have a thing about hearts at the moment, all three ATCs have a heart on them, these were created with the help of one of the new Crafters Workshop Stencils, the Gothic Romance one. It has hearts in two sizes and some really cool other patterns, I just love these new stencils!! You can see one of the patterns done rather messily in Picket Fence Distress Paint. The heart itself and all the other colours were done with Distress Markers.
I used a really cool technique for this: After you have finished your stamping, cover the whole surface with a thin layer of Glue N Seal. I used Matte. Once it has dried, scribble your Distress markers where ever you want some colour and just blend with your finger. You get a lovely translucent layer of colour. On this one I used Fired Brick, Bundled Sage, Aged Mahogany, Broken China, Black Soot and Walnut Stain.

For this one I used a larger heart on the same stencil, more of the Numerical stamps, both in Black and Red Geranium. I also stamped a bit with a bottle cap and some more Picket Fence Distress Paint. Colour was added in the same way, similar colours but also Faded Jeans.

And here is the last one, more of the same. I over stamped the heart with some Picket Fence DP, I also added some marks with an old credit card. I wanted these ATCs in a messy mixed media journaling style, with lots of layers.

The Final part was to stamp the word Inspiration from the Journaling 3 plate onto old book paper.

Monday, 24 March 2014

Hello all, Alison (butterfly) here again, with a musically-inspired hanging for you today. (Click on the photos for close-ups if you'd like to see more.)

This happens to me a lot... a phrase or song lyric will go round and round in my head until I'm pretty much forced to allow it to play along. If you want to listen while you look, You Don't Bring Me Flowers is the song that invaded this creation!

I know this song was triggered by the new toy I was playing with to create the stone urn on this piece... there's something very melancholy about old stone planters in my head, and that dictated how this piece took shape.

Jennie has just added these fabulous Katy Sue Designs silicone moulds to The Artistic Stamper shelves. There are some really lovely and intricate moulds - and I thought this little trio might have dollshouse potential as well as crafty applications.

I had meant to use some air-drying clay, but when push came to shove I wasn't patient enough to wait for it to dry, so instead I melted some beeswax in a tart tin, using my heat tool, and poured that into the moulds.

I sealed it with multi-medium, and then painted it with various colours, including the marvellous Stone Fresco. The little mulberry paper flowers are from my stash.

Regulars will know that when I need melancholy, I usually reach for the Gibson Girls, and this woman was perfect for my purposes.

I stamped her in Potting Soil Archival onto some Distress Watercolour Cardstock, and then used a mask to allow me to ink and stamp around her.

I stencilled around her using the new Tim Holtz Doily mask, and stamped with my favourite Calligraphy Mat, but lots of the layers have almost disappeared under the final spritzing of Perfect Pearls Mist in Pearl.

Worth it for the shimmer - though it's hard to capture in a photo.

The book page ivy strands had been sitting around on my desk for ages (created for this art journal page at the beginning of February, but then that needed something darker).

Friday, 21 March 2014

Hello messarounders, this is Titbelsoeur here showing you my very last card, with lots of love !

This love quote, stamped on a paper mat, should disconcert you... yes, you are not used to see me doing shabby things with lace and wet-eyed kitten pictures...But I love to mix styles that don't fit together...that is why I have first stamped backgrounds on a leftover page, for a grunge look :

But my card looked quite nude with only this stamped mat... then I stamped the spring flowers from the Encyclopaedia Botanica plate on to a book page, I cut it out and colored it lightly with watercolor chalks :